Jamaat calls hartal in Ctg for tomorrow
The Jamaat-e-Islami called a dawn-to-dusk hartal in Chittagong division for tomorrow after party leaders were denied permission for holding a rally in the port city yesterday.
The protest programme was declared at a press briefing at the office of city unit Islami Chhatra Shibir, student wing of Jamaat, at West Bakalia. Jamaat city unit Ameer Shamsul Islam, MP, made the announcement, according to a press release.
Earlier, the party announced that it would hold a rally in front of Anderkilla Shahi Jaam-e-Mosque yesterday afternoon, protesting killings of four Jamaat activists in Chittagong during its February 5 hartal. But the Chittagong Metropolitan Police had not given them permission, Jamaat city unit Publicity Secretary Mohammad Ullah told The Daily Star.
Four people, including two pedestrians, were killed in clashes during the hartal enforced by Jamaat, said police sources, but Jamaat claims all of them belonged to the party.
Earlier in the day around 5:45am, a group of 15 to 20 Jamaat-Shibir men stopped a Chittagong-bound pick-up van and a covered van on the Dhaka-Chittagong highway near Banshbaria of Sitakunda upazila and set them ablaze.
On information, a unit of fire fighters from Sitakunda rushed to the spot around 7:00am and doused the fire, said Prahlad Singh, a telephone operator at Agrabad Fire Service and Civil Defence Station in the city.
No casualty was reported, he said.
Meanwhile, police arrested a Jamaat leader and 13 activists of Islami Chhatra Shibir in the port city and two upazilas of Chittagong on different charges.
Mostafa Noor, Jamaat assistant secretary general of Sitakunda upazila unit and also vice-chairman of the upazila, and a Shibir activist, Shahidul Islam, were arrested at their residences yesterday on charges of arson and creating obstacle in transport movement in the area during February 5 hartal, said Syed Iqbal Ali, assistant superintendent of police (Sitakunda circle).
Police arrested five Shibir activists -- Hamed Hasan, Monirul Islam, Galib Hasan, Alamgir Hossain and Mishkat Uddin -- in Bahaddarhat area under Chandgaon Police Station on Wednesday in connection with assaults on police during the hartal, said Rajesh Barua, sub-inspector of Panchlaish Police Station.
In another development at Lohagara upazila, police arrested seven activists of Shibir early yesterday and on Wednesday for attacking policemen, said Shahjahan, OC of Lohagara Police Station.
The arrestees were identified as Shafiqul Islam, Mostak Ahmed, Delwar Hossain, Ali Ahmed Sawdagar, Khaled Saifullah, Abdul Gafur and Parvez.
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